Actively Watching Videos

I include annotated videos as part of my instruction because I believe students need to learn to gather information when they watch videos.

Unfortunately, I am fighting the attitude of my students who believe they cannot learn from videos and a teacher who told them point blank that people cannot learn from videos.

She even spoke to me about returning to straight lecturing because professors in college do not use videos, they lecture and our students shouldn't use videos.  I decided the other teacher is wrong because I've taken distance classes which incorporated videos as part of the regular classes. Furthermore, I've gone to YouTube to watch videos to learn to do things like soldier. 

The other day, I spoke with my students about videos.  I began asking students if they ever watch a You Tube video to learn something.  They answered no.  I asked if they ever watched videos for fun.  To be entertained.  Of course they said yes.  This lead to my explaining about mind set.  When they say they are unable to learn using videos, they have a closed mind.  I told them, they can learn but they do not know how to do anything other than passively watch videos because they watch videos with the expectation of being entertained.

The videos I assign are focused on a specific topics with questions sprinkled throughout so they have to stop and answer the questions before moving on.  I took time to go through a video, explaining how I would watch it more actively.  I talked about what I would write down as notes, which material wasn't as important, and how to review the notes I took to find the answers to a question. I told them we'd have another lesson after Thanksgiving to help them learn to watch actively, rather than passively. 

KQED has a column on the topic in which the author discusses how her students entered "TV mode" when watching videos.  In other words, they didn't pay attention to the content, they focused on the accents, or hairstyle or voice.  She had to do things to help them learn to look at the content.

She recommends a teacher pre-watch the video, edit it so it is in smaller chunks, insert questions, comments, or commentaries, and prepare guided notes before showing the video.  The guided notes have blanks so students know what is important to write down.

Before students watch the video, activate prior knowledge and give them a reason to watch it.   During the video, its good to have the video pause often so students can process information and so they can fill out the guided notes. If watching the video as a group, teach students to Watch, Think, Write.  They watch the video, think about it while possibly discussing it, and then writing the information down.

When the video is over, students can create concept maps, use the information to answer a question or solve a problem, find a video clip that clarifies something from the original video and share it with the class.

The BBC recommends the instructor introduce the video to give them a purpose for watching the video.  In addition, it is suggested that videos should not be any longer than 15 minutes due to student attention span.  It is important to include questions so students know what to focus on when watching the video.  These questions turn the passive watching into active watching.  Also let students know they can rewatch a video if they didn't get all the information the first time.

It is good to know that my conclusion of passive versus active learning is correct and that I need to instruct students in active learning when watching videos.  Please let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear.